Envisioned and launched before the coronavirus pandemic, Harvard Kennedy School’s flagship online non-degree program, the Public Leadership Credential (PLC), is filling an unanticipated gap in the educational landscape, straddling the space between bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. This month, the first cohort of 35 participants completed the program of six courses followed by a capstone…

The Harvard Innovation Labs has kicked off the 10th Annual President’s Innovation Challenge (PIC), a competition designed to bring together the Harvard community to work on compelling solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. For the 2021 Challenge, winning teams will receive $510,000 in prizes, made possible by a generous gift from the Bertarelli Foundation, co-founded by Ernesto Bertarelli, M.B.A. ’93.  “As…

For five years, Harvard Teacher Fellows (HTF) has provided Harvard undergraduates with an innovative pathway into teaching, preparing fellows for the complex world of education through five semesters of coursework, summer student teaching, and a yearlong teaching residency. In schools from Oakland, Calif., to New York, fledgling HTFers have grown into accomplished educators. Last spring, HTF…

Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has established its first research and innovation alliance by joining forces with Northpond Labs, the research and development-focused affiliate of a leading science and technology-driven venture capital firm, Northpond Ventures. Through the alliance, Northpond Labs will provide $12 million to create a Laboratory for Bioengineering Research and…

The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is pleased to announce the opening of applications to the Lemann Brazil Research Fund. Applications are due by Jan. 25, 2021 and must be submitted via the Harvard University Funding Portal. Established in 2016 with a gift from the Lemann Foundation, the Fund is intended to foster…

The Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics was awarded a Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) Challenge grant to further support the critical new field of public interest technology. The Center for Ethics was awarded funding to pursue the project, “Evaluating and Assessing Tech Ethics Education,” which will evaluate and assess public interest technology education and pedagogy in…

It was a movement that went viral with a hashtag, but for Tarana Burke, the work that galvanized millions of survivors and allies was the result of a life dedicated to interrupting sexual violence and systemic inequalities. #MeToo has brought waves of survivor stories to the forefront of our social consciousness, but the struggles disproportionately…

As communities around the world work to rebound from the global COVID-19 pandemic, more than 50 Harvard College students will be able to provide immediate help this winter break. Through a gift from Raymond Fong ’77 and Winnie Moy, the Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship will launch the Fong Family Winternship Program in January…

How did the institutional grant become such a normalized means of funding the arts in the United States? Michael Uy’s “Ask the Experts: How Ford, Rockefeller, and the NEA Changed American Music” (Oxford, 2020) explores this question, as well as how grants have been evaluated, by which criteria and by which experts. Uy is the Allston Burr…

We need a variety of antibody types to help fight off invading foreign pathogens and our genome is exquisitely tuned to produce them to meet emerging needs. A new study finds that not just our DNA, but its configuration and packaging, help us generate diverse antibodies. Our DNA strands are organized, together with certain proteins,…

Researchers at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and the Center for Geographic Analysis at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science recently launched  a public dashboard for congressional representatives. The dashboard also includes constituents on key COVID-19 metrics for the congressional districts of the country, as identified by the 116th United States Congress. Nearly…

Michael Hopkins, George Putnam Professor of Pure and Applied Mathematics and Department Chair, has been named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society for 2021. He was awarded the fellowship for contributions to algebraic topology and related areas of algebraic geometry, representation theory, and mathematical physics. The Fellows of the AMS designation recognizes members who…

The American Repertory Theater presents “Jack and the Beanstalk: A Musical Adventure,” an original musical adaptation for kids ages 4+ and their grown-ups, will premiere virtually on Friday, Nov. 27 at 6 p.m. and be available on demand through Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. The new annual family holiday show 45-minute Zoom musical takes viewers on…

Critical thinking skills — analyzing facts to make reflective and informed decisions — are essential for students when it comes to civic engagement. However, in today’s fast-paced news cycle, it’s become increasingly difficult for students to discern fact from fiction to make informed decisions. This is especially true of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new educational report from Project Information Literacy (PIL) uses the first…

Danielle Allen, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, has long studied what citizens need in order to succeed in democracy and how our social studies and civics education have impacted democracy. In a recent episode of the Harvard EdCast, Allen discussed how the nation got where it is today and what it will…

Spring classes will begin on Jan. 25, 2021 and end April 28, as previously announced, FAS Edgerley Family Dean Claudine Gay confirmed today in a message to faculty and staff. But spring break will be reimagined in a continued effort to minimize student travel off campus to help control COVID-19. It will be replaced, instead,…

Harvard professor Elizabeth A. Phelps was named this year’s winner of the George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience. Winners of the prize are honored for a career characterized by distinguished and sustained scholarship and cutting-edge research in cognitive neuroscience that has the potential to revolutionize the field. The prize is presented by the Cognitive…

The National Institutes for the Humanities of Japan (NIHU) awarded Andrew Gordon the 2020 International Prize in Japanese Studies. Gordon is the Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History, with a special focus on modern Japan. In the announcement of the prize, the NIHU recognized Gordon’s extensive work on the history of labor in…

The Harvard Innovation Labs announced that it has accepted 22 startups into the Launch Lab X GEO (LLX GEO) accelerator, a nine-month program designed to bring together Harvard alumni-led ventures from around the world and help them build sustainable, disruptive businesses with real-world impact. “From making surgery safer for patients and healthcare providers, to turning restaurants into micro grocery stores, all of the ventures participating in this year’s Launch…

Data science is at the core of modern business, impacting industries ranging from healthcare to government to advertising. In response to the growing demand, Harvard Online is announcing a new course, Data Science Ready, to help managers speak the language of data science and contribute to data-oriented discussions. The nearly code- and math-free, four-week online…

The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters has invited Jan Ziolkowski from Harvard University as an external member. Ziolkowski is a member or corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, and American Philosophical Society as well as a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and of the American Academy of Arts…

Women who always have irregular menstrual cycles or cycles lasting more than 40 days may have a greater risk of dying before age 70 compared to women with very regular cycles, according to a new study by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They found that among women ages 29-46, those with…

This summer, the British Academy welcomed a new group of 86 Fellows in the humanities and social sciences to its ranks from the United Kingdom and around the world. Of the 30 overseas academics selected, seven are from Harvard: Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities and Senior Advisor on the Humanities to…

A groundbreaking initiative for undergraduate students is making the  liberal arts even more actionable at a crucial moment in history. The Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship (LPCE) empowers students to solve global challenges right now, says Harvard professor Robert Lue. He is leading the program, which has been generously funded by Brazilian innovator Jorge…

The percentage of Americans who were heavy consumers of sugar-sweetened beverages — those who drank more than 500 calories’ worth every day — dropped significantly from 2003 to 2016, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They found that the percentage of children who were heavy…

Steven Levitsky, the best-selling author of  “How Democracies Die,” co-authored with Daniel Ziblatt, has been named faculty director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard (DRCLAS). The center brings together in a multidisciplinary fashion all the work that is being done at Harvard from the Law School to the Medical School…

The Harvard Art Museums have announced a gift of nearly 50 works by major figures in postwar German art from the collector Dorette Hildebrand-Staab, a member of the German Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum. The works include drawings by such notable artists as Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Antonius Höckelmann, Jörg Immendorff, Imi Knoebel, Sigmar Polke,…

Areas of New York City that experienced a drop in work-related commuting during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic had a lower prevalence of infections when compared with areas that did not have as significant a reduction in work-related commuting, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The…